The New and Glorious Day (I) [Awakening Faith]
Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. (Matthew 28:9)
The reign of life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended. A new birth has taken place, a new life has come, a new order of existence has appeared, and our very nature has been transformed! This birth is not brought about “by human generation, by the will of man, or by the desire of the flesh, but by God” (John 1:13).
If you wonder how, I will explain in clear language. Faith is the womb that conceives this new life, and baptism the rebirth by which brings it into the light of day. The church is its nurse, her teachings are its milk, and the bread from heaven is its food. It is brought to maturity by the practice of virtue; it is wedded to wisdom; it givesbirth to hope. Its home is the kingdom; its rich inheritance the joys of paradise; its end is not death, but the blessed and everlasting life prepared for those who are worthy.
“This is the day the Lord has made” (Ps. 118:24), a day far different from those made when the world was first created and which are measured by the passage of time. This is the beginning of a new creation. On this day, as the prophet says, God makes “a new heaven and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17). [Continued in next entry . . . ]
--Gregory of Nyssa
Awakening Faith: Daily Devotionals from the Early Church
Awakening Faith: Daily Devotionals from the Early Churchby James Stuart Bell and Patrick J. Kelly
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